The National Association of Independent Medical Equipment Suppliers advises providers to take advantage of Congress’ May 24 through June 1 Memorial Day recess by contacting their senators and representatives on behalf of the industry and their patients.

As congress members return to their district offices, providers should attempt to schedule in person meetings with their or their legislative aides. (A list of health legislative aides can be found at the NAIMES site; http://www.dmehelp.org.)

NAIMES announcement comes after American Association for Homecare president and CEO Tyler Wilson urged providers attending last week’s Medtrade Spring to keep up the pressure on congress after returning from a hearing of the House Ways and Means Committee’s health subcommittee.

During that meeting Rep. Pete Stark (D-Calif.), who chairs the committee said that CMS’s competitive bidding program was “somewhere between flawed and lousy,” but said that the industry would have to find some way to decrease its “fees” by $6 billion over five years to “get rid of” the competitive bidding program

Given those developments, as well as the pending announcement of bid winners, a statement from NAIMES said “Your Senators need to hear from you NOW.  Begin making appointments now for the recess week so you can be sure to meet with them. Also use the call to reinforce the need to stop competitive bidding for DME and make changes to the oxygen cap.”